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Hitch-hopping over to the Eyre Peninsula

Spotted-thighed frog from Western Australia has been sighted in parts of South Australia.

WA Museum

Human assistance may have played a part in a Western Australian frog species coming over to South Australia.

In the past two years there has been sightings of the Spotted Thighed frog in Streaky Bay and just recently at the Port Lincoln racecourse.

Natural Resources Eyre Peninsula Landscape ecologist Greg Kerr says he is not sure how the frogs have managed to cross the dry conditions of the Nullarbor, but they may have been brought into the state in a vehicle.

Mr Kerr says the impact of the frog isn't known but it could pose environmental dangers, particularly if it continues to spread.

"It may be that there are some rarer frogs in the Murray Darling Basin that they could impact on and they may start to, for example interbreed with something like the Green and Golden Bell frog or the Growling Grass frog.

"That would have further consequences for an already threatened species and they may displace some frogs from their normal habitat."